A day after Priti Patel announced the UK’s first blanket quarantine from 8 June, the transport secretary has denied that travellers can avoid two weeks of self-isolation by travelling via Ireland.

At the No 10 daily briefing, a questioner named Gordon from Gosport asked: “How is the government going to prevent travellers staying in the Irish republic after their holidays to bypass the UK’s 14-day quarantine?”

The Independent has identified several ways in which travellers could avoid quarantine by travelling via Dublin. None involves staying overnight, which would breach Ireland’s strict lockdown rules.

But Grant Shapps dismissed the so-called “Dublin dodge”, saying: “The point that people may not be aware of is that Ireland has a travel ban effectively as well, so they also have a quarantine in place.

“So it is the case that that may change in the future. Of course we’ll keep our system under review in the future.

“But for the time being whether somebody travels to Dublin or somebody travels to London, the same essential quarantine system would apply.”